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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Monday, July 27, 2009

Afternoon diversion

I'm not really a fan of this sort of "journalism," but, for an afternoon diversion, it's pretty OK. Republican Congressmen running from/responding to a HuffPo guy asking them about the "birther" issue.

3 Comments:

  • i'm not a fan of this for everyday normal citizens but these are elected officials being asked a very legitimate question and their reactions/avoidances need to be seen and questioned. Too often the public never get to see an honest, genuine "un-planned", response - one that hasn't been polled, washed and sound-byte ready. The public needs to see the GOP (and some democrats) - and lets face it - majority of our "voices in Washington - are nothing but corporate whores. only rarely will they be on any media (video, radio, etc) and completely open to unknown questions. I hate it when Beck and Orielly do this guirella tactics on unsuspecting citizens or activists - and I am likely nearing being labeled a hypocrite but I would absolutely relish seeing our elected cowards run from questions like this on a constant CNN/MSNBC loop.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:08 PM  

  • I certainly get that, and I'm not blanket condemning because the current system generally allows the Reps to avoid this type of question and they get conditions from the media on their interviews, BUT....

    I've also seen this style used pretty ugly, and there's a real tendency to abuse this.

    Even the big networks abuse this style. Think about the old 60 minutes stories or O'Reilly today.

    It's just borderline to me, and it doesn't generally offer the targets an adequate response. You get a lot of "when did you stop beating your wife?" type questions, and the editing is always to make the person look guilty.

    In alot of cases, the rep says, "I don't answer questions like this, contact my staff," and the film person chases them shouting. The tactic is designed to make the target look bad.

    It's just shoddy practice and exploitative.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 5:43 PM  

  • Mike Stark is here in VA, nearby. He had a few moments with the Allen/Webb Senate race, and even surprised O'Rielly once outside of his home.

    By Blogger zen, at 11:42 AM  

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